Lalnable and the Clones
by Azulaela
Summary: Lalnable has managed to escape Yoglabs and is preparing his revenge against Xephos - who imprisoned him - and Lalna - who replaced him, and with the help of his new clones, he might just succeed. (Includes Lalna, Nano, Xephos, Honeydew, Sjin, Lalnable, Echo and my OC Astrid.)
1. Chapter 1

He had what he needed. After waiting for god knows how long he finally had it.

Her lock of hair.

He had been planning this since the moment he knew of her name, of what she was capable of...back in that prison they called fool Xephos who had the cheek to call himself a scientist was talking about her to his small companion - a dwarf by the name of Honeydew, if he wasn't bumbling oaf who plodded around the facility, not a clue what he was doing: a waste of oxygen and volume, carelessly causing damage...and tapping on the glass, the irritating twit.

But without them, he would heard about the girl of flux, her ability to pillage countless villages without a care. She sounded perfect, the ideal apprentice. Nano.

That was until he finally saw her.

After setting up near their establishment after escaping Yoglabs, Lalnable felt he was finally ready to claim his apprentice, to show her who she could truly be. Only, once he came to invite her to this way of life, she was already an apprentice - no, partners - with... _him!_ Lalna.

It was odd seeing them both. This Lalna was obviously different from the original, covered in flux like Nano. He knew at once he would have to cut off any emotional connection to Nano (and Lalna), now Subjects A and B, if he was still to succeed. The flux Lalna had ruined her; her destructive tendencies, her murderous ways, all caged and pushed aside, replaced with animals and...care.

Pathetic, she was no longer of any use.

Or perhaps she was.

If this flux Lalna was briefly removed from the equation, he could take a DNA sample from Nano and create a clone of her, but modified to regain its violent habits.

A repeat, but not quite the same.

An echo.

An Echo for a Lalnable.

He had what he needed. A lock of her hair, he had it now. It may have cost him his identity and almost his life, but he had it. It wouldn't be the last time the subjects would hear from him.

Lalnable no longer needed his research base: just a few matters were left there after he moved into his new lair - much more adept and scientific than the last, although its exterior was decorated as a butcher's in case the subjects came snooping. How can a scientist do science without a proper laboratory?

He split the hair into several parts - just in case it didn't work first time. It was unlikely, but a few precautions must be made. And he was right to: around eight to ten clones failed. \but he felt this time was the right time; he used his original cloning container, stolen from Yoglabs. He had experimented once or twice with it before, using bats.

Lalnable pushed a few buttons on a control panel, just so everything was set up. Lalnable then rolled up his left sleeve and cut a large gash in his arm. He smiled at the sight of blood and licked his lips vaguely...he shook his head and carried on working. The scientist walked into another container in the wall, holding half a lock of hair in one hand. A few seconds after stepping in, the door closed behind him and lights started flashing. It was about to begin. _Cloning in progress. Cloning in may experience some extreme pain or discomfort. Please do not be alarmed. Cloning. Cloning. Cloning._

A high pitched ring screeched through Lalnable's ears as she shouted and laughed manicly in pain. It lasted a good thirty seconds before the cloning finished. Lalnable collapsed at the base of the cloning vat, his vision blurring. _Cloning successful_ was the last thing he heard before passing out from the pain.


	2. Chapter 2

Lalnable left his lab for the next few days of several reasons: one of them was to allow the new clone to grow without any disturbances, the other to put the subjects in their places and send them a message - he had been watching them through the doll system and had noticed their growing hatred of him. It was to be expected.

 _The new clone grew in the only light was from the cloning vat itself, emitting an eerie, neon blue glow. Whatever liquid this clone was in accelerated her growth: that and the testificate slaves, forced to run endlessly on treadmills to generate power. Whatever this new clone was to be, it was born of darkness, evil and hatred - what could go wrong?_

Her eyes flew open. Everything was tinted blue. All the equipment and apparatus in the lab were visible, but she could tell it was dark, that the only light was beneath her. She was able to breathe oddly enough, but she couldn't understand why. She had no gills as far as she was aware,but she didn't question it. But what she really did find aggravating, was how she couldn't get out. She shouted and screamed in rage, thrashing about the vat, despite the fact she was fully aware the glass couldn't be broken. A small, red light flashed on the control panel and a little alarm went off. Slowly the liquid started draining and she could have a proper breath of air. It was fresh, satisfying.

And the moment she got out of the cell, she'd kill whoever put her in it.

Lalnable had heard the alarm go off - someone was either attacking the clone or it was waking up. He virtually ran into his lab to see the result. He switched the lights on to see a young woman - early-mid twenties - sitting at the base of the cloning vat. Lalnable ran up to the cell and shouted, walking around it to examine what he had created. He stopped in front of her and met her gaze: it was one of hatred and rage. Equally, it was met with his own expression of anger. This cloning wasn't a success!

Well, technically it was, but it wasn't _Echo_. She gave Lalnable the middle finger as she continued to glare at him. At least basic knowledge of how society worked had transferred through the cloning.

But she wasn't...right. Her hair was blonde, not black. She was relatively tall, about eight or nine inches taller than Nano. She was covered in a flux-like substance on the right side of her face and up her arms, but it was blue and not purple. Like ink. And then there was the most abnormality: she had wings. Two, large, midnight blue (with aqua-tinted tips), dragon wings, circled around her body. Nano didn't have wings! (Not naturally at least.)

Lalnable ran to the second container in the wall and looked inside. Sure enough, at the back of the cylinder was a bat's wing, covered in water. He picked it up to examine it - it must have come from his previous experiments of attempting to create water bats. The scientist threw it across the lab in rage. "Not what you expected?" she asked rhetorically.

"What?" Lalnable looked over behind him, enraged.

"Did I not turn out how you wanted me to?" she laughed. "What did you expect? That the DNA in a little bit of hair would be stronger than the DNA of an entire man with exposed blood and a bat? Nice one."

"The DNA must've been pretty strong to result in your gender and vague hint of flux," Lalnable replied dryly.

"True," she shrugged as she stood up, her wings still covering her body. Lalnable couldn't help but notice she was divinely beautiful. He wasn't really the sort to care as he preferred to devote his time to science, but she was very pretty: her eyes were bright blue and her hair looked smooth and soft. Her figure was toned and slender, but he could tell she was stronger than she looked.

She was also a failed experiment. Despite being affected by Nano's DNA, she was still mostly Lalnable - actually, she was mostly herself. Her manner was very independent. But that did mean that if she was to go undercover and temporarily replace Nano like he did with Lalna, she would instantly be spotted. Her personality was too wild and fiery to be controlled, like Nano...but perhaps she could be manipulated...like Lalna did with Nano. How else did he manage to get Nano to subdue her violence other than through manipulation?

He walked over to the control panel and hit a few buttons. "You're letting me out," the clone stated.

"Well at least you know how to state the obvious," he replied sarcastically and the vat's glass-like wall evaporated. "Field testing is to start immediately and you need to be ou-" The new clone launched herself at him, knocking him to the floor.

"I said the moment I got out I would kill whoever imprisoned me!" she growled, tightening her grip around his throat.

"You were never imprisoned! I created you."

"No! You captured me and turned me into... _this_!"

" _No_ , I created you using pure DNA! Do you have any memories before today?"

"You erased them!"

"Oh get real! I may be clever but I'm not a miracle-worker. I've got some pretty shit memories too! You don't think I would have gotten rid of them? I gave you life, you should be grateful!" The clone loosened her grip as she appeared to think. As she did Lalnable took this chance and rolled himself and the clone over, pinning her down so she couldn't strangle him, or even move for that matter. He was right in thinking she was strong, stronger than any mob he had ever encountered. "Calm down!" he instructed, his voice harsh and commanding. "I don't plan on killing you just yet." The clone met his gaze and stopped struggling, but her rage was still evident. Lalnable chuckled slightly, "I may have underestimated you. You're not exactly what I need, but you can help me get it."

"Why shouldn't I kill you here and now?"

"Firstly, because as much as you dislike it I am stronger than you and you cannot move. Secondly - and more to the point - I can tell you are a reasonable person with decent and honourable morals. I gave you life and you should respect that. If you just hang around for a bit, do as I say, I believe you may come to like this place."

"You're freaking insane." Her eyes were still irritatingly fearless, but a part of Lalnable admired that.

"I know," he laughed. "Do we have a deal?"

"Fine," she said bluntly, which was followed by a short pause. "Can you get off me now?"

Lalnable suddenly realised the situation he was in. He coughed awkwardly, "Of course." If he was a 'vaguely normal' person he was unsure on what he would've done. Someone of his mentality but less scientific was extremely dangerous - but that wasn't him. He would admit that he did feel amorous at times, and the clone was rather attractive, but science always came first and he was too busy to care.

He stood up, "I'll go and find you some clothes. You stay here for now," he started to leave, "And don't touch anything!"

Lalnable returned with a set of clothes and some chocobo meat. The clothes were a good set of clothes: a leather jacket with a large hood; leather trousers; big, post-apocalyptic-style boots with a series of buckles - all a navy blue - a black T-shirt; underwear and of course, goggles - much like his own but with blue lenses rather than red. He figured that since the clone was partially blue she would like the colour: lucky for him she did.

The clothes suited her well, or they would've done if she didn't have wings. Adjustments would need to be made to the T-shirt and jacket because of them.

There was a slight awkwardness as Lalnable offered 'nicely' to take some measurements of her back and where the base of her wings were. Lalnable was never 'nice' - polite at times, but never 'nice'. The clone glared at him and turned around; Lalnable could see through the clothes to where the wings started and cut little holes into the leather and fabric. "If you rip my wings I'll rip out your throat."

"Shut up, stay still and I won't," he replied bitterly. He then left the cloning lab to another room, after telling his creation to 'stay put'.

To his surprise, he had returned to see that she had. He wasn't gone long but their relationship mixed with her temperament didn't bode well. Lalnable told her to sit down as he dragged a stool out from under a table and placed it behind her. With a needle and thread, he began sewing a new material around the holes in the clothes. "What are you doing?"

"Attaching an elastic-like material to your clothes so your wings can get in, out and move around properly."

There was another silence, "Thank you."

"Hmn?"

"Thanks for all this. Creating me, not killing me even though I turned out wrong and I tried to kill you, giving me clothes…"

Lalnable smiled, "Not so big and tough now?" he joked.

Her voice suddenly turned threatening again, "Look, my apologies don't come round very often so don't make me regret trusting you."

Lalnable continued to sew "Why would I do that? Us failed clones have to stick together."


	3. Chapter 3

Lalnable next had an actual conversation with his clone mid-way through analysing his own DNA in order to see how much of him transferred through cloning. This was quite early in the morning, as the rest of the day before had been spent field testing, which even then consisted of very little conversation...her results were very interesting though…

He looked up from his microscope every now and again, just to check she was still there, just sitting, back against the wall: she was. Lalnable was disappointed to see that the goggles were missing, but tried to ignore it. "I need some of your blood to compare DNA with," he mumbled.

The clone stood up and stood behind Lalnable, "I haven't even been alive for twenty-four hours and I've already undergone a series of field tests and now you want my blood!"

"Shut up and hold out your arm," he replied bluntly, finally looking up and spinning around on his chair.

She stuck out her arm, "What did Lalna and Nano and Xephos and whoever actually d-" Lalnable suddenly bit savagely into the clone's arm; he kept biting for a few seconds, even after drawing blood with the clone shouting furiously as she tried to pull her arm away. Lalnable then just sat a back in his chair, licked his lips and picked up a cotton bud to take a swab of the blood. "They imprisoned me, experimented _horribly_ on me and left me for dead in a cell," he explained as he took the swab. "Lalna and Nano are just fools who could prove to be intere-" A hard punch landed on his face as she brought her arm up and hit him square on his lower jaw.

"What are you? A bloody animal?" she exclaimed, examining her arm. Lalnable laughed and wiped the swab on a petri dish. The clone just stood there, shocked. The scientist then turned back around and smiled in an oddly charming way as he started to bind the wound, as if he had completely forgotten about what he just did. "Go on! Are you a vampire or something?"

"No," Lalnable laughed. "A recovering cannibal, yes. I try to eat animals now - the whole cannibalism thing is never good for one's mental health - but sometimes I just can't stop myself," he openly explained. The wound itself was remarkable clean; he knew it wouldn't take long to heal, especially with his new healing ointment.

"I think it's a bit late for the mental health thing...you could just ask for a blood sample next time."

"But that wouldn't be nearly as fun." They both laughed.

The clone woke up a few hours later. She must've sat back down and fallen asleep. Lalnable was nowhere to be seen so she guessed he had gone to bed. She wanted a bed. She wanted an actual place to sleep, preferably with a bed.

She eventually found where his room was and casually walked in. It was a big room - mainly black, but with red in places as well. Lalnable laid outstretched on his bed, sleeping. His shirt and jacket were folded neatly on the table next to the bed, with his boots placed at the bottom. He snored softly as the clone peered over him, intrigued by the sound he was making.

Then he woke up.

Lalnable virtually leapt out bed and onto the floor, dragging the quilt with him. "Bloody hell! Haven't you ever heard of privacy?"

"Honestly, no."

Lalnable stood up and walked over to the table to get his shirt, "Oh. Well, why are you here?"

The clone rolled on Lalnable's bed and stared up at the ceiling, "I want a bed. Actually, just a room for me would be nice, but I like this bed."

"Well that's a shame," Lalnable replied, shrugging on his lab coat.

The clone rolled over to face him, "But Lalnable…" she moaned.

He grabbed the duvet off the floor and put it back on to the bed, covering the winged-human, "I'll see what I can do."

"Good," she replied in a muffled voice.

The clone sat next to Lalnable as he continued working on his science. There was another long silence and the clone was obviously getting bored. "So...all this work is for this _Echo_ then?"

"Yes."

"What's the deal with Echo?" Silence. "Why can't I do her job and save all... _this_."

"Because you neither look nor sound like Nano," Lalnable said, still not looking up from his microscope.

"What's the deal with Nano?" This time he looked up, throwing a glare at the clone that would terrify most people. Instead, it was met with a cheeky smile, mischievous and confident in what it was doing. Lalnable sighed and explained the scenario.

There was another silence as Lalnable went back to his microscope, looking satisfied with the quiet. "Can I have a name?"

"What?!" Lalnable had to restrain himself from shouting as he growled the reply, growing ever more impatient. He looked up, expecting a look of overconfidence, but instead saw one of sincerity. He calmed down when he saw the genuine look in the clone's eyes and repeated 'what' in a much calmer tone.

"A name. Please can I have one?"

"Yes, of course. Give me some time - _and_ some quiet - and I'll have one for you. For now though," he stood up and walked over to the clone, taking her hands and pulling her in so close that there were centimetres between their faces - he needed to assert authority in a way she would react - and looked her in the eye, "I need you go and get some food. I'm hungry." The clone laughed slightly and virtually skipped off, seeming happy.

She returned a while later, covered in blood and carrying a dead chocobo - an _entire_ chocobo. Lalnable was at first surprised, then impressed. "What happened?"

"Well, I found a chocobo, so I killed it. Then a zombie attacked me and I got really angry at it so I killed that as well and then I just killed every hostile mob I saw on the way back because I was still angry," she explained innocently. Her violence, her strength, her beauty, her skill, if only she could pass as Nano.

"Well, you might want to wash all that...gore off your clothes -"

"Says you," she pointed out - Lalnable's lab coat was covered in blood stains.

"Unless you think that style suits you." The clone suddenly started forming water from the air and washed off all the blood. Lalnable sat shocked in his chair. It seemed like Nano's powers over flux had been passed on to the clone but with water. This was fascinating. "Why did you not do this during field testing?"

"Didn't know I could do it."

"We'll have to do another test soon then," Lalnable muttered.

"So what should I do now?"

Lalnable could think of several answers, "Perhaps cooking the giant bird you just killed rather than leaving it in my lab would be a good idea." The clone nodded and left with the chocobo, leaving Lalnable to continue with his science,

There was another awkward silence when eating. Lalnable wasn't taking anymore chances with the next clone so contaminating research with chocobo meat wouldn't be a great idea. Instead, he and the clone ate in the kitchen, leaning back against or sitting on the worktop, opposite each other.

Lalnable dropped the bone into the bin next to him and Astrid managed to throw it in from where she was sitting. "Astrid." Lalnable said suddenly.

"What?"

"Your name, it will be Astrid." Astrid's face lit up as she threw herself across the kitchen and hugged him, attacking him with 'thank-you's. Lalnable didn't really know how to react; he just stood there before eventually hugging back - lightly. Despite Astrid being a killing machine she really had quite a character.

Astrid: divinely beautiful.


	4. Chapter 4

Astrid's glee with her new name didn't last long when she saw where she had to sleep. Lalnable said it was originally a research cell - it still was to an extent - and she could see why. One way glass, pristine white walls, a bed in the corner and literally nothing else. She thought he would've put a bit more effort into accommodation since he created her and all. Astrid glared at him in disbelief and was met with a similar look: she was the subject, he was the creator and _he_ had authority, however much she hated it.

As Astrid settled in, Lalnable watched her through the glass. He had the most powerful and dangerous being in the world under his control. Not only could he finally create his Nano clone, but he could also take revenge on the flux buddies for destroying his old base and trying to kill him. Lalnable had a weapon he wasn't afraid to use, and soon he would have another.

The next few days consisted of Lalnable and Astrid learning more about each other. Lalnable had learnt Astrid had two very definitive sides to her: one that was witty, inquisitive, cheeky and humorous, and another which was very dark, angry, violent and hateful, with nowhere near the same control as Nano. He had also collected more information on how she turned out the way she did and how to create Echo.

Astrid had also learnt a number of things about Lalnable - as well as ways to annoy him like putting salt in his coffee. He was very judgemental of the flux buddies and a lot of hatred went towards them when he was experimenting. However, a mad, eccentric person was mixed in with this that made him almost...charming in an odd way. His mad laughter, violent plans and disturbing thoughts were somewhat amusing to Astrid. And he loved science, above all else he loved his science.

As they grew ever nearer to creating Echo, Lalnable required more DNA from Nano. It wasn't long till he sent Astrid while he attempted to see if the simplicity of testificates could be used as a base for Echo.

Upon Astrid's arrival, at the flux buddies base she was struck by the brightness of the area. There were lots of flowers, everywhere; brightly coloured buildings; trees; animals and...meteors. But what really struck her was the pair's relationship. It was similar to her's and Lalnable's, only it was lighter and more joking with topics such as millionaire bears and many, _many_ innuendos, rather than talk of death. There was also a clear equality between the two: Astrid envied this, this could never happen between her and Lalnable - he was too arrogant. They could get close but he would always have the final say.

And perhaps Lalnable would like to know that they're werewolves.

Astrid had a job to do and she did it with precision. While she observed their behaviour, Astrid managed to obtain some of Nano's hair, skin and blood as well as some general genetics given to her by a very sweet robot called Barnabus.

What really intrigued Astrid was the flux buddies' general inadequacy. Although this was mainly Lalna - she could see how with Lalnable being a clone of him cocked up her cloning - they just seemed to be constantly pissing around, trying to please their wolf-God.

Astrid returned a few days later with results that impressed Lalnable. "This is it, Astrid, I'm almost there now! Just a few little tweaks and I'll be there!" There had been a number of attempts already, but all failures.

As the DNA was purified, Lalnable moved on to see what Astrid could really do. This mainly consisted of him recording notes through the one-sided glass as Astrid showed off her powers.

Lalnable had also learnt he needed a greater arsenal of weapons: swords, guns, anything. This meant he had also done a lot of experimenting with chemicals, with the help of Astrid. "How about hydrogen peroxide?" she asked.

"What?"

"It's basically the essence of explosives!"

"Of course!" Lalnable muttered some science as he poured a solution into a conical flask. Sure enough, with the right salts, it exploded in the flask - only a small one, but enough to make to two jump. Lalnable chuckled evilly as he placed the flask back on the table and watched it bubble away.

He turned to face face Astrid where the two looked at each other. Astrid gazed into the despicable look in Lalnable's eyes. He was so intelligent, so cunning, so insane.

There was a few seconds of silence until the mad scientist swooped in and started to kiss Astrid. He very quickly felt a sharp sting on his lower lip as Astrid bit into it - she wouldn't let go for a good four seconds as Lalnable tried to pull away. He looked down at Astrid, furious, and expected her expression to be the same; but instead, he saw a mischievous glint in her eye. She was toying with him! Lalnable laughed slightly and quickly pushed her against the wall as he moved in to kiss her again - this time she didn't bite back.

 **So it's gone** _ **down**_ **with Lalnable and Astrid! (I've decided to do this little thing at the end of each chapter now.) Hope you are enjoying it so far, the next chapter should be out soon so stay tuned. Hopefully I'll get it up to speed with the flux buddies series as their plans with Sjin seem to be fairly similar to mine, but we'll see :) stay classy yognau(gh)ts!**


End file.
